Earning Miles Retroactively on a Partner?

 
Old Mar 11, 2015, 9:01 pm
  #1  
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Earning Miles Retroactively on a Partner?

A few months ago our family did a long international trip with multiple flights on multiple airlines. I made sure my frequent flyer numbers were on the bookings, but the rest of my family did not have applicable accounts and it can be cumbersome to open them and is not always worthwhile (family of 5, 3 minors).

So just today I enrolled them in American to get credit for our flight home on that trip (it was back on January 3rd). It was a full fare 1st class EZE (Buenos Aires) to NYC so it I figured it was worth it; they got 10,000 miles each. I know they expire in 18 months but we will probably fly American next spring.

Anyway, within South America I also earned almost 10,000 point on Lan, which I applied to BA in my case but which could go toward American, too since it is OneWorld (the kids don't have a BA freq flyer account).

Here is my question, can I get the kids credit for the Lan flights on their (new) American Advantage accounts, even though the Lan flights took place before they were American Advantage members? I can't seem to find the answer on the website; the site implies that I should not have even been able to get the miles from the Jan 3rd American flight. And when I call them I can't seem to break out of the menus.

Thank you in advance. It drives me crazy how cumbersome some airlines make it to get your kids frequent flyer accounts, but they charge them full freight like anyone else.
TimetoCashEmIn is offline  
Old Mar 11, 2015, 9:12 pm
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Welcome to FlyerTalk! Since you are specifically seeking info on AAdvantage program policies, your post will likely receive better feedback here in the dedicated AA forum.

Good luck!

Moderator, Information Desk
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Old Mar 11, 2015, 9:19 pm
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From http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/termsConditions.jsp

Originally Posted by AAdvantage T&C
You may request mileage credit for past, eligible transactions up to 12 months from the transaction date. Transactions prior to your enrollment date are not eligible for mileage credit.
so for the flights prior to the enrolment date, no credit. If you managed to get the AA flights prior to joining date credited, you were lucky
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Old Mar 12, 2015, 3:15 am
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Originally Posted by Dave Noble
From http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/termsConditions.jsp

so for the flights prior to the enrollment date, no credit. If you managed to get the AA flights prior to joining date credited, you were lucky
How much additional effort is needed to create an account for a child than it is for an adult at aa.com? I haven't done this in a long time, but I don't remember it being any different than the effort involved in creating an adult account.
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Old Mar 12, 2015, 3:22 am
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Process was exactly the same for kids as for adults as of about a year ago when we set one up for a grandkid. No problem.
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Old Mar 12, 2015, 4:40 am
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AA will not give you credit if you were not a member at the date of the flights. This policy is comon with many ffp's

US Airways does/(did?) allow are credit for flights taken up to 6 months before you join.
You are better to join US and retro claim for the LAN/AA flights

Some information on retro credit in post 1 here http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...help-here.html
And here http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/22311026-post3.html
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Old Mar 12, 2015, 10:38 am
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Originally Posted by aBroadAbroad
??
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Old Mar 12, 2015, 6:21 pm
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Thank you, Ebroadabroad, CPRich, Mwenenzi,mvoight, and Dave Noble, for your replies.

I did see that excerpt from the website, which certainly did seem to say you had to enroll first or at least simultaneously. On the other hand, when I enrolled everyone in American yesterday by phone it was for the express purpose of getting credit for the Jan 3 flight, and American didn't even hesitate at all at that, so later, I started to wonder, if maybe, just maybe, I could squeeze in LAN too.

As to my general comment about the hassles of creating frequent flyer accounts for the other four members of my family, I didn't mean to imply that it was necessarily more work than four random people, just that they do not accommodate families at all. With just a bit of effort they could at least make families a sub account so that it is easier to manage and I don't spend my afternoon playing data entry clerk (I'm not even talking about pooling benefits, just don't make me type in my address 5 times, please). Also, for example, I never made my kids JetBlue members because they each needed a unique email address iirc, and they didn't have one. And one airline ... Was it Delta? ... Wanted me to fill out paper forms and mail them in.
Heretofore most of our leisure travel was in miles so there was nothing for them to earn, but sometimes that won't be the case or sometimes I will just use miles to upgrade, so it's time to enroll them and it's just a pain.
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Old Mar 19, 2015, 1:11 pm
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It never hurts to ask.
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